Hello

The protected audio-cd is mine, but I want to rip it and encode it to use it with my mp3 player.
I use EAC, but in secure AND in burst mode, it reported errors, so I'm not sure the ripping is best audio quality...

What is the best way to rip such a protected audio-cd ?

Would it be a good idea to make first a copy with CloneCD and rip after the "de-protected" copy ?

CloneCD wont remove the protection. Install AnyDVD, restart the computer, and then try ripping the original with EAC.

Ben

@xp 98
Don't forget, not all drives are able to read a hard copy protected disc, lite-on and
plextor drives are very good to handle with this, also alcohol120 is an alternative, too.

Thanks for your help.

Does AnyDVD work with audio-CDs ?

Yes, it can remove most common Audio CD protections.
I would give it a try, it worked for the last few people I recommended it to who had the same problem. Just make sure it is enabled in the AnyDVD settings like this:

Thank you very much for your answer.
Can you just help me a little further : if I install anyDVD (I've seen there is a 21 days trial), and enable the setting like you showed... what must I do after that to rip (or copy) my original CD ? Does AnyDVD make "protection free copies", that I can rip with EAC ?

Once ripped and re-burned, it will be protection free.

Without any loss of audio quality (the reason why I always used EAC is that I often red that it is the best programm to preserve the audio quality) ?

Yep, start up anyDVD first. Then rip with EAC and burn with something like Nero. You won't lose quality if in Secure Mode.

Does AnyDVD get rid of MediaMax Audio CD protection? I somehow ended up with that MediaMax garbage installed on my machine and I'm running AnyDVD. I backed up XXX: State of the Union Soundtrack with CloneCD and the copy had the MediaMax protection on it. I'm guessing I could have removed the protection by selecting only the first session.

MediaMax is easy to crack if you know what you're doing, without AnyDVD or even EAC. For all of the ways to crack it, read Alex Halderman's famous paper at:
http://www.cs.princeton.edu/~jhalderm/cd3/
It's a few years old, and some of the filenames may have changed (for example, on the audio disc of the recent "Dido Live" CD/DVD, the MediaMax launch file is called PlayDisc.exe, not LaunchCD.exe), but most of it still applies to ANY MediaMax disc.

The most important things are (a) get rid of the MediaMax "SbcpHid" driver if it's there (as described in the Halderman paper), and (b) disable autorun (read the Annoyances.org article linked in the "update" section--the best way is thru TweakUI, but read the first comment for how to do it with Win2K; you DON'T have to disable auto insert notification). Once you do that, yes, select only the first session where necessary (any of the TOC options in EAC will work, even the current neutered version).

I disabled autorun before ever inserting "Dido Live" into my computer; EAC ripped it like buttah, and I think even ordinary rippers would have worked. It's also been reported here that someone who got the SbcpHid trojan off the new Backstreet Boys disc was able to rip it after following the instructions in the Halderman paper. (That part of the instructions was even posted in the Amazon.com reviews of that disc.)